Week 2 - Meditation

I hope you found the first discipline of fasting helpful as you have begun Lent. Now it is time to move on to a new discipline- one with a lot less physical suffering associated with it. One that you might find easier to practice. I want to offer you this week an overlooked discipline, the discipline of meditation.While fasting, according to Jesus, is a personal, inward discipline, meditation follows along the same path. It is personal and it is inward. Thomas Merton says, “true contemplation (or meditation) is not a psychological trick but a theological grace.” Christian meditation is the ability to hear God’s voice and obey his words. It involves listening to God’s still small voice that is so hard to hear in the busy, hustle-filled life we live.On any given day we can find ourselves very distracted with no time for God to speak to us in. Whether it is the morning news, email, social media, simple text messages, or honking at the driver in front of you, we can be very distracted outside of our homes (to say nothing about being tied to a favorite television program). If we practice meditation, we can find that simply putting down our phone, or turning off the radio, or getting up five minutes early can become moments where God speaks to us in a powerful and personal way as we meditate upon God’s word and allow God to shape and re-work our lives.King David was a master of mediation; his psalms testify to this truth. He said, “Oh how I love thy law! It is my meditation all day long... (Psalm 119). Whether it was tending the flock and watching the clouds or ruling the nation, David loved spending time in God’s word, thinking upon what God was saying in those words to him in that moment. It is because he was faithful in this way that he could hear what God was saying to him.Meditation is like, as someone once told me, falling into a comfortable chair or recliner. We sink down deep into the chair and rest. In meditation we sink down into Jesus where we hear his words in our hearts and they mean something to us. Human beings have always needed someone to speak for them to God, but in meditation God speaks and we listen; no second-talker is necessary. We let the power of God’s word change us as we silently listen to the sound of God’s voice.One example that I have used from time to time, which I learned in seminary, and find very helpful and easy to do, it is a meditation tool I can use in the car as easily as I can utilize it in my prayer closet. While it is simple it is also challenging. Find a verse of scripture- one you know by heart. It can be something you have just learned or an age-old verse from history. It does not matter. Repeat it over and over again but each time you repeat it put the inflection of your voice on the next word in the verse and see what happens. For instance: OUR Father who art in heaven. Our FATHER who art in heaven. Our Father WHO art in heaven… you see the process. Continue it until you finish the verse and then move on with your day. As each word is emphasized concentrate on what that word means in the verse you are saying. Again for instance: “OUR Father who art in heaven.” He is ‘Our’ Father he is not someone else’s Father. OUR can be a word of community. It can tell us we are not alone. OUR is a relational word…. On and on it goes until you finish the verse. Don’t stop until you are done. Then move on with your day. That time will stick with you. Meditation brings us into a deeper understanding and appreciation of God’s word and its power in our lives. Try it and see what happens in your life!